Several weeks ago, I took a drink with a local Grit. I thought he was having me on when he said he was heading out Lindsay-way to help ensure that Rick Johnson "loses by less than five points" - i.e. a valiant effort that would keep John Tory in the leader's chair and the red and rabid wings of his party at each other's throats.
In light of last night's result, I wrote to suggest he might just have done his job a little too well. Came the reply:
"The plan was to lose. And we gave it a good shot! We now have some issues. They are going to have a new leader, so we may have to get a new leader."
He's got a point. Dalton McGuinty may well spurn a third term. The triple crown is tough to win in the best of times, let alone in the midst the current apocalypse.
Facing the hard realities, Premier Dad might well opt to make a couple of bucks before retirement rather than face a new set of attack dogs. And there's no shortage of pretenders: Smitherman, Bryant, Watson and Fonseca passed one Grit's lips before I'd finished asking the question.